Hi,

That is a tall order.  Most memory is made by major players in the
semiconductor field, such as Micron, Samsung, Hitachi, Hyundai, Siemans,and
Fujitsu to name a few.  There are some smaller players like, Specktec,
Vtech, and Inferon.  These manufacturers make the memory chip and usually
identify it with there symbol or logo on the chip itself.  Micron would be
Mt for instance, Seimaes has their name Siemens on it.

That does not mean that they make the module that you put into the main
board though.  They can but not always.   Usually if the manufacturor of
the module is the same as the manufacturor of the chip, they will have
their name on the module board.  There are third party manufacturors that
also make the modules that you put into the main board, using the chips
from the semiconductor manufacturors.  Kingston memory for instance, a well
known brand, assembles the board using chips from any of the major players
and they put their name on it.  They do not actually make the chip itself.
There are a lot of small "assemblers" of memory modules that do not mark
their name on the board.

In the industry memory is usually catagorized as, Micron on Micron, Siemens
on Siemens, etc, when the manufacturor makes both the chip and the module.
Memory modules are designated, Micron on thirds, or Seimans on thirds, when
the module is assembled by a third party using major chips.  It is the
third party, non brand name memory, that is the hardest to identify,
because they save costs by not putting a lable on the module and
identifying what it is.  Ususally the warranty for that memory is 90days to
1yr.  You would take it back to the place you purchased it from to exchange
it.

Brand name assembelers, like Kinston, PNY, Crucial, will label the memory
and have their name on it.  They usually offer a lifetime warranty on it.

There are electronic referance books that you can go to and with the
manufacturers name and chip numbers that are on the black modules look up
the specifics of the chips, not necessarily of the memory module itself.
That would be the numbers before the "dash" (-),  usually in the middle of
the chip.  The number after the dash is the speed of the chip in nanoseconds.

Another number on the chip that give you information is the date code.
Most of the time you see a 4 digit number and that is the year and the week
the chip was made.  For example 9936  would mean that this chip was made
the 36th week of 1999.  That would be about the 1st week in september of 1999.

I find that the only way to really tell what a module can do if there is no
label, is to put it into a tester to give me the specifics.

If you want to find out more about memory try this link:
http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/default.asp


God Bless America!

Joe Lore
MicroComputerCenter, Inc.
781-933-5530 / [log in to unmask]

            Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
                   http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml